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A friend from work challenged me to let her choose three ways I could meet single fellows, or at least meet people who I could meet fellows from, and let the blog readers vote on them. She is convinced she knows which one will win, but when voting, I want you to consider the question at hand. After 11 p.m. on Sunday, September 13th, whatever choice has the most votes will be the activity I do. I will document the experience and report back whether I did in fact meet any nice gents.

Below the poll is a more in-depth explanation about each activity (and information if you want to try any of the activities out yourself!)

Let the voting begin…

UPDATE: With 53% of the vote, the winner is Nintendo Wii Night! Check back soon for a post on how the evening turns out.

Virginia Wine Festival

Sept. 19-20, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. This festival, at Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville, is one of the biggest in the area, with live music, vendors of crafts and foods and wineries from across the state (including Breaux, Tarara and Kluge Estate). Single-day tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the gate; designated drivers and ages 12 to 20 $16, $22; ages 6 to 12 $5, $8; 5 and younger free. 540-745-3378 or http://www.across-the-way.com.

Nintendo Wii Night

Don’t have a Wii? You can use the Front Page’s system Sunday through Tuesday.

The last two days have been frustrating professionally and personally. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time diving into why. Instead I’m going to create a list of the somewhat quirky things I did to cheer myself up. Maybe you can find inspiration to be used on your next bad day.

-Sit in Dupont Circle. People watch. Engage in the conversation with the pleasant, if not odd, young man who offers you a slice of his pizza.

-Scroll to your favorite song on your i-Pod. Hit play. Repeat.

-Apologize to the people you snap at as soon as you realize you snapped at them. This will greatly improve any chance you have at preventing a frustrating Day 3.

-Finally learn how to play flip cup at the age of 27.

-Eat Chipotle Barbacoa soft tacos.

-Don’t shop at the GAP.

-Pick up the latest issue of National Geographic magazine. Flip to the article on Somalia. Realize how lucky you are.

-Compliment someone. And then compliment someone else.

-Participate in a lot of high 5s.

-Show your co-workers the latest routine you learned in Hip Hop class. Share in their laughter. Then show it to your Bocce team. Teach them how to cross their arms “street”.

And why, you may ask, am I writing about my fross on my dating and relationship blog?

To start, she was the first person to leave a comment, so she gets an automatic shout-out. Also, she tweeted about my blog to her 342 followers, which likely lead to the 17 page views I got today.

Mostly, though, why I am writing an ode to my fross is the basic fact that she got me this far.

My fross was not always my fross. For the first six months, we were boss and employee and we didn’t always get along.

But then my mom called and said my dad was leaving. When I went into work two days later, my boss/soon-to-be-fross closed the door to her office and let me have a meltdown. And a couple more meltdowns after that. And during each meltdown, she said the words you need to hear from someone in a leadership role in your life, “Life can really suck sometimes. But you will survive this.”

And she was right. I am still surviving it.

Seven months later, when my boyfriend decided he could not move in with me, the second person I texted was my fross. She called immediately. I had to convince her she didn’t need to come over and bring mass amounts of dessert.

The next day I walked into her office and fell apart. And again, she said the right thing.

My fross buys me lunch (more than she should) and throws bags of M&Ms in my cubicle. And every time the reality of my broken family or my lost relationship hits me, whether I’m at my cubicle or in a meeting, I go into her office and close the door and she figures out a way to dig me out of the hole.

I don’t know how people survive the hardest days of life without a fross. I happened to find one at the moment when my hardest days yet were staring me in the face.

One day, hopefully soon, I’m going to go on a fantastic date. And I can’t wait for the morning when I can walk into my fross’ office and tell her all about it.